Reconstructing the Origin of Andaman Islanders

Abstract

The origin of the Andaman "Negrito" and Nicobar "Mongoloid" populations has been ambiguous. Our analyses of complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from Onges and Great Andaman populations revealed two deeply branching clades that share their most recent common ancestor in founder haplogroup M, with lineages spread among India, Africa, East Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. This distribution suggests that these two clades have likely survived in genetic isolation since the initial settlement of the islands during an out-of-Africa migration by anatomically modern humans. In contrast, Nicobarese sequences illustrate a close genetic relationship with populations from Southeast Asia.

Revealing the prehistoric settlement of Australia by Y chromosome and mtDNA analysis

“…In other words, these data provide further evidence that local H. erectus or archaic Homo sapiens populations did not contribute to the modern aboriginal Australian gene pool, nor did Australians and New Guineans derive from a hypothetical second migration out of Africa (38), nor is there any suggestion of a specific relationship with India (9,21,22).…”

“…Comparing the Australian complete mtDNA sequences within the context of the Asian phylogeny (25,26,(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45), we find that the Australians do not share any derived branches with Asians more recent than the founding types M, N, and R (Fig. 2).…”

Revisiting the role of the Himalayas in peopling Nepal: insights from mitochondrial genomes

“…1,18 Mutations are recorded by comparing with the revised Cambridge reference sequence (rCRS). 19 All the individuals were allocated into specific haplogroup based on their control-region information; the assignments were further confirmed by typing additional diagnostic coding-region mutations according to the reconstructed phylogenetic trees of East Asian, 1,20-25 South Asian 5,7,12,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] and Southeast Asian [34][35][36][37][38] (Supplementary Table S1, Supplementary Material online). For the mtDNA sample of interest, entire genome was amplified and sequenced as described elsewhere.…”

The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin Dispersals

“…The popularity of this route has been further strengthened by genetic studies based on comparisons of DNA characteristics in modern populations, which seem to suggest a single rapid dispersal of modern humans out of Africa at about 70,000 years ago (Oppenheimer, 2003;Forster and Matsumura, 2005;Macaulay et al, 2005;Thangaraj et al, 2005), an idea that has been coupled with a supposedly new emphasis on marine resources that attracted modern human populations to productive coastlines and propelled them eastwards around the rim of the Indian Ocean (Stringer, 2000;Walter et al, 2000;Mellars, 2006;Bulbeck, 2007). Similarities of early stone-tool industries between East Africa, Arabia and the Indian subcontinent have been discussed in relation to this hypothesis (e.g.…”